Firstly, I need to get the inaccuracies out of the way. The House Committee on Un American Acitivities (HUAC), did not once impose a blacklist and stop communists from working, except when those in contempt were sent to Prison. The Blacklist was a decision made by the Studios themselves. Secondly, the use of the phrase 'McCarthy witch hunts' would be incorrect to describe these hearings, given that Joe McCarthy was a senator and not a member of the House of Representatives so would not have sat on any house committee irrespective of what it was for.
With that out of the way, on to the film. Well acted? Yes. Well directed? Yes. Well written? Yes...and No. It is a very one sided view of the HUAC hearings and it very strongly takes the sides of those suspected communists called before the committee, which is not surprisingly given that the screenplay was written by Abraham Polonsky, a bitter, hateful and thoroughly nasty piece of work, who was a communist and was blacklisted himself for his political views at the time.
However, when director Winkler wanted a rewrite changing the main character to a mild liberal and someone who wasn't actually a communist, Polonsky blew his stack and insisted his name was removed from the production in every way. Polonsky walked and the rewrites went through, but the majority of Polonsky's work remained.
Surprisingly, Sam Wanamaker, an American actor who was also blacklisted in the late 1940's before relocating and rebuilding a career in England, appears here playing an attorney who's encouraging his clients to cooperate with the committee.
The irony of this whole movie is that it is communist propaganda, written by a communist, who was blacklisted to stop him from spreading communist propaganda in movies, something the communists accused swore blind was not happening. Yeah right!
You only have to look at the Hollywood of today to see how, when left unchecked, communism can indeed infest and indoctrinate every fibre of our lives and can flourish when people actually stop caring. The most recent output from Hollywood has convinced me that that the HUAC hearings and the blacklist wasn't such a bad thing after all.
With that out of the way, on to the film. Well acted? Yes. Well directed? Yes. Well written? Yes...and No. It is a very one sided view of the HUAC hearings and it very strongly takes the sides of those suspected communists called before the committee, which is not surprisingly given that the screenplay was written by Abraham Polonsky, a bitter, hateful and thoroughly nasty piece of work, who was a communist and was blacklisted himself for his political views at the time.
However, when director Winkler wanted a rewrite changing the main character to a mild liberal and someone who wasn't actually a communist, Polonsky blew his stack and insisted his name was removed from the production in every way. Polonsky walked and the rewrites went through, but the majority of Polonsky's work remained.
Surprisingly, Sam Wanamaker, an American actor who was also blacklisted in the late 1940's before relocating and rebuilding a career in England, appears here playing an attorney who's encouraging his clients to cooperate with the committee.
The irony of this whole movie is that it is communist propaganda, written by a communist, who was blacklisted to stop him from spreading communist propaganda in movies, something the communists accused swore blind was not happening. Yeah right!
You only have to look at the Hollywood of today to see how, when left unchecked, communism can indeed infest and indoctrinate every fibre of our lives and can flourish when people actually stop caring. The most recent output from Hollywood has convinced me that that the HUAC hearings and the blacklist wasn't such a bad thing after all.